


A castle with many many doors

by Numerion



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 04:09:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10549840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numerion/pseuds/Numerion
Summary: A short story about a girl who sets a foot through the wrong doors. Or the very right ones.





	

Once upon a time, in land far far away, there was a castle with many many doors. And they weren't normal doors. In fact they were portals. Portals to many places. Places of wealth, adventure and monsters.  
The inhabitants of the castle, namely Queen Isabella and her husband the King Edward, never actually use these doors. They merely guard them. From time to time, one of these doors open and a person walks out. This person is more often than not most ordinary person in the world on their extremely un-ordinary route. By the ways of the castle, this person has to bring a gift for the door guardians. Once they greet and see all of the castle, they'll be on their way to a different set of doors. Once they are through, all the doors are closed again. 

Our particular person's name is Amanda and she was an absolutely regular person. Up until one day, she did everything in the normal ways. She got up in the morning, had breakfast with milk and then she got dressed and went to work. But on that day, she has decided that work is not what she would be doing.  
She has decided that she will be going off the regular set of actions and instead explore and have fun, instead of her daily grind for money, food and admiration. She has decided that she'll spend the day for herself. And this, needless to say, broke the very fabric of the world. But that's just us getting ahead of ourselves.

Back to Amanda. She is a young accountant. Or at least was. She liked working, but after all, who enjoys working to such a degree that they will be happy from only that? Well, certainly not Amanda.  
Amanda ticks off all the free time she can get. Be it weekends, evenings or even ten minute coffee breaks in the work. She is a very open person. She talks a lot mostly with her friends, but she doesn't mind shooting the breeze with people she doesn't know. She also likes silence. Not the riding up the elevator with a random person silence, but the silence you get, once you walk over a hill and the noise of the city drowns out in the trees. Amanda also doesn't believe in plain relationships. She believes she will one day meet her Prince Charming, but until that day, she doesn't really worry about boys. Or girls in that regard. She just wants to live on. 

One morning she wakes up, has her breakfast, puts on her clothes and departs for work. Instead of getting on the abysmally full bus, she goes to work on foot, a thing she normally doesn't do. On her way, she notices a father with a blind child and begins to wonder what it's like to experience the world in a way that other people don't. And on that her mind began to wonder: What if she already is experiencing the world differently. She quickly dismisses the idea. But not quickly enough. When she wakes up to the world again, she finds herself in a street which she never saw before. And in this street there is a door with her name on it. She looks around and sees nobody. Faster than her caution is her wish to explore. Quick as lightning her hand rests on the door's handle. Her caution slowly starts kicking in as she opens the door very slowly. 

And she walks into a different world. A world between worlds. She spots many upon many doors. Some of them, like the one she used to get into this place, are plain and wooden. Some of them are made of ornate stone. Others are made of metals which she has never laid her eyes upon previously.  
She closes the door behind her. She absolutely forgets about her wordly duties and wanders down the corridor of doors. Unknowing of the rituals of the place she has no idea where she is supposed to head first. Her fingers trail the walls of this corridor, although she is being very very careful about not touching any of the doors in question. She feels as if that could have an adverse effect on her staying in this place.  
She walks on through the castle and her eyes lay on every door she passes until she comes up into a stone lobby of sorts with two thrones on a dais in the middle. And on them are sitting two people, man and woman, wearing crowns and staring at Amanda. Now Amanda is a smart woman and she quickly realizes that she is staring at a queen and a king, but in the moment she has no idea what she should be doing next. 

While the Queen and the King did not expect anybody to come out of any of the doors today, they do not mind small change of plans. After all there is not much to do in a castle dedicated to doors beyond welcoming the traveling people. And Amanda like the rest of them absolutely fits the description of a regular person on an irregular day of their life. As such, they expect a gift from Amanda.  
"We welcome thee" said the king in a proud voice as he usually does. Amanda's response however doesn't fit any of the rituals. Instead, looking very wild eyed I might add, she asks the most obvious question there is for this place "Where do all these doors lead?"

Both the king and the queen don't expect this kind of question. After all the ones that pass through their castle are well aware what this place is and where all the doors lead. Or in the very least they know where two specific doors lead. Amanda only knows of one however.  
"Are you not here on an important quest?" the queen, a bit sharper of the two, asks, "Do you not bear gifts? And do you not know the destination of your quest?"

Realization slowly sets in for Amanda. She appeared in a place that was the most unusual. And most of all, she shouldn't be there. But she is.  
"I do not bear gifts" she admits. "And I have no place to go. In fact I barely even remember the doors that I came through to get in here." she continues. 

The King and the queen exchange confused glances. The king takes in a deep breath "We require a gift." the king insists.  
Amanda doesn't really have a gift to speak of. All she has is her purse full of her personal items, which she doesn't want to part with. Those and a fine lunch packed in a small container. 

Quick on her wits, she pulls out the container. She holds it up and presents it to them. They don't seem too impressed. After all they are very familiar with food and most of the time, the gifts they receive are way more substantial in worth than a single cold lunch.  
But Amanda doesn't stop there. She flips the container upside down and shakes it about. That produces a fine and sudden draw in breath made by the queen. Mostly because up to that day, she has not seen a food container that would hold the food inside so well, that none of it would spill outside. She reaches out and takes the container into her hands. She tries it out and pushes against the walls, until inevitably, the lid comes off and Amanda's lunch falls out and folds neatly onto the ground.

The king laughs and nods to Amanda "The gift is worthy" he says "The passage is paid for". This makes Amanda happy, but she still has no idea where she will be going. 

"Have you made up your mind about your quest" the queen asks and tries not to seem bothered by the mess on the floor in front of her.

Again, Amanda's quick thinking comes into play "I am heading into a place which isn't usually experienced" she says "Which I have not seen and normal others have not been to". She has figured out how this place works. The raised eyebrows of the pair tell her that it will be a difficult quest. 

"Pray tell" the king starts "Where is this place? All our doors lead to places usually visited and experienced" he explains. 

"Well then" she smiles at him "I will not be going through any of these doors." she says and breaks into a run towards the main gate. It is closed, but as soon as she touches it, it opens wide and shows her a sight that has been reserved for the most unusual people, the guardians of the doors. It is nothing and everything at the same time.  
As she can now see, the castle is in place where nobody else was ever expected to be. But now she is there. And before the royal pair can catch up she runs along into the woods of the unknown. And it is everything she ever hoped it would be.


End file.
